How to get my exchange upgraded?

lukin

Remember a few years ago eircom had a section on their website where you could click to get your exchange upgraded? When a certain amount of people clicked the exchange was added to a list of exchanges to be upgraded.
I presume this is not there anymore as I've looked for it. How does one actually go about getting their exchange upgraded? (apart from lobbying TD's and writng letters to newspapers that is)
Thanks for any replies.

D'Peoples Voice

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the Regulator for Telecommunications in Ireland - Comreg.

Don't know what the hell it would have to do with a TD anyway,
surely you meant local councillor?

TDs are to be contacted if you want national legislation changed - thats why they are elected to the Parliament where legislation is enacted.
Local councillors on your local authority/government are to be contacted if there is a service/good/commodity not available in your local area but available in another area - they are the people that plan development in your area and authorize permission for utility companies to undertake road works etc.

At least thats the way it is in Dublin, but I did hear rural Ireland is different, so maybe you're in rural Ireland, in which case I've no idea!

lucernarian

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the Regulator for Telecommunications in Ireland - Comreg.

Don't know what the hell it would have to do with a TD anyway,
surely you meant local councillor?

TDs are to be contacted if you want national legislation changed - thats why they are elected to the Parliament where legislation is enacted.
Local councillors on your local authority/government are to be contacted if there is a service/good/commodity not available in your local area but available in another area - they are the people that plan development in your area and authorize permission for utility companies to undertake road works etc.

At least thats the way it is in Dublin, but I did hear rural Ireland is different, so maybe you're in rural Ireland, in which case I've no idea!

And why would a local authority in a mainly urban area would behave differently to a local authority in a mainly rural area? There are cases where some people in larger towns are jointly administered by a county council and a UDC or borough council etc but that's not in question in an area which has a non-DSL exchange.

Why would the poster mean local councillor instead of T.D.? I'm sure the OP knows the difference before you kindly explained it for him/her.

For the record, it's incorrect to say that local authorities "plan development" when it comes to the offering of a service. Market forces are what decides that and in the case of Ireland, there was a market failure due to a lack of exchanges/lines enabled for DSL. The goverment introduced a poxy subsidy for a mobile telephony operator in response to this.

ComReg can only regulate the market and not tell industry where it should invest, beyond the PSO with companies with significant market power. Unfortunately broadband isn't a PSO in this country.

lukin

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

Don't know what the hell it would have to do with a TD anyway,
surely you meant local councillor?

My local councillor is a muppet; I wouldn't waste my time asking him :-)
I do live in a very rural area
I got a reply from my local TD, he advised me to "contact Three in order to see is your area covered by the scheme ":rolleyes:
I have tried their usb modem; their coverage is terrible and it times out when downloading large files.

D'Peoples Voice

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

And why would a local authority in a mainly urban area would behave differently to a local authority in a mainly rural area?

Where would you start? Ask someone from Galway city council about Galway county council's work on water quality flowing into Galway city. Someone from Cork city council area can tell you about the crazy housing policy of Cork county council in places like Rathcormac causing traffic at the Jack Lynch tunnel. Someone from Limerick city council area can tell you about the poor planning of Limerick county council in respect of Moyross. Some of the policies of rural councils would look to be ....... well its difficult to believe that certain decisions were not based on the familiarity people have in rural areas with their local councillor. So it would SEEM that urban councils make decisions for the best of the authority area, while those in rural areas make decisions for other reasons, lets say.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

There are cases where some people in larger towns are jointly administered by a county council and a UDC or borough council etc but that's not in question in an area which has a non-DSL exchange.

Every local authority will have a long-term(sometimes 10-year) plan for an area, where housing, education, sanitation, policing, transport and utility services will be taken into account. You don't just think they normally approve housing applications without some considerations of the services in the area. Therefore the planning department of the local authority would know the population density and any plans by utility companies to improve the services in those areas - otherwise how would they know if they can approve further development if they don't know what future services are in the pipeline in the locality

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Why would the poster mean local councillor instead of T.D.? I'm sure the OP knows the difference before you kindly explained it for him/her.

quite right, I didn't mean to sound patronizing. Yes, indeed i should have articulated that better, I was merely trying to explain why he should go to one rather than the other.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

For the record, it's incorrect to say that local authorities "plan development" when it comes to the offering of a service. Market forces are what decides that and in the case of Ireland, there was a market failure due to a lack of exchanges/lines enabled for DSL. The goverment introduced a poxy subsidy for a mobile telephony operator in response to this.

Local authorities plan housing etc on the back of future services they know will be going into the area. Therefore if the OP lives in an area, then there is a good chance that the local authority have/had prior knowledge of what services would be provided in the area prior to planning approval, including telephone exchanges. So by creating a particular housing density in a particular area, they do in effect have a part to play in the market.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

ComReg can only regulate the market and not tell industry where it should invest, beyond the PSO with companies with significant market power. Unfortunately broadband isn't a PSO in this country.

Comreg will know what exchanges are to be upgraded - surely? I accept the equipment belongs to Eircom, but yeah....I guess thats why we have the National Broadband Scheme with 3 mobile.

lukin

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

Comreg will know what exchanges are to be upgraded - surely?

OK I'll try them, thanks.

D'Peoples Voice wrote: »

I accept the equipment belongs to Eircom, but yeah....I guess thats why we have the National Broadband Scheme with 3 mobile.

The NBS is a joke.

Edit:
I just read the email I got from my TD again; he said "Since Eircom was privatised Government has no influence over their activities."
True I suppose (thanks a lot Mary O Rourke).

Sponge Bob

Exchanges to be upgraded are Yellow on these maps. There are perhaps 40 to be done when eircom feel like it and their upgrades were announced over 4 years ago.

Red exchanges, of which there are nearly 300 nationwide, are not being done by eircom ....who are nearly bankrupt.

lukin

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Exchanges to be upgraded are Yellow on these maps. There are perhaps 40 to be done when eircom feel like it and their upgrades were announced over 4 years ago.

Red exchanges, of which there are nearly 300 nationwide, are not being done by eircom ....who are nearly bankrupt.

I've seen that site yeah. My exchange has been red for years. I will look into setting up my own wireless rural network but there is a lot of technical knowledge, time, and red tape involved and the d'load speeds would be poor anyway.

jor el

The short answer is that you don't. eircom will not upgrade an exchange that they've deemed not worth upgrading. The Trigger Programme is what you were thinking about, but I don't believe that any exchange was ever triggered for an upgrade from it. It was a PR exercise designed to placate people. It fizzled away, and there were never any announcements about it actually working.

Lobbying, etc, is probably a waste of time. eircom haven't got the money to upgrade exchanges, especially financially non-viable ones.

lukin

jor el wrote: »

The Trigger Programme is what you were thinking about, but I don't believe that any exchange was ever triggered for an upgrade from it. It was a PR exercise designed to placate people. It fizzled away, and there were never any announcements about it actually working.

That was the name of it; pure PR bull as it turned out. I am sure no exchange ever got upgraded from it.

jor el wrote: »

Lobbying, etc, is probably a waste of time. eircom haven't got the money to upgrade exchanges, especially financially non-viable ones.

I don't think my exchange will ever be upgraded now.

coylemj

I recall a T.D. saying once that there was three types of people who came to his clinic (1) people who wanted something that the T.D. couldn't deliver (2) people who wanted something that was illegal and (3) lonely people who just wanted someone to talk to.

lucernarian

I'm not interested in going into a point-by-point rebuttal of the post from D'People's Voice but I will make these three observations:

Local authorities have a habit of being staffed by people who couldn't make the grade as civil servants. This is a harsh opinion but I've rarely have had to deal with such a shower of fools at times as the ones in Louth Co. Co., Meath Co. Co. Fingal Co. Co. or Dublin City Council. There's always the few that can be depended on to get something done or to see things with some common sense but they often don't have the power of doing much about it.

Speaking of power, one is deluded if they think that local representatives have much influence or authority in comparison to the actual resident staff. The thing is, the first post fom D'People's Voice was dealing with talking to local authorities and the next post discusses the functions of organs within a local authority and have little or nothing to do with the councillors! Councillors are further impeded by the bootlicking that goes on with the county manager, the man who makes the final call on many executive powers. If the county manager doesn't like a councillor, he/she can easily ignore the councillor or prioritise other works instead of the one this councillor wanted.

ComReg may be aware of where exchanges are likely to be DSL-enabled but remember it was the Dept of Communications who were behind the NBS, the group broadband schemes and now the Rural Broadband Scheme which is all dependent on knowing eircom's rollout plans. ComReg's role has nothing to do with exchange provisioning or the investment decisions eircom make beyond the PSO except that the regulation of new services from the investment changes the business case. E.g. LLU, wholesale bitstream.

This is why I rejected the earlier post and find it quite patronising to suggest or "hear" that local representation somehow works differently for the unwashed masses outside the M50. Every local authority has dirt on its bibs when dealing with a neighbour and taking examples from places where fierce rivalry exists between the two local authorities, like when one surrounds the other is more than a little disingenuous. I am familiar with the workings of the Dublin local authorities and their administration, particularly that of Fingal Co. Co.'s is one I have criticised repeatedly.